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Largest Sopanam School of in association with Melam Charitable Trust & Milano Studio & Events organised the largest chenda performance with 101 artistes at the Pothanoor Sree Durga Bhagavathi Temple, Malappuram, on Nov 29, 2015. The programme ‘Thayambaka Mahamaham’ was an arangetam (first performance) for 91 students of Sopanam School with 10 teachers and other supporting performers on .

WR: Largest ensemble The Art of Living Foundation organised a kombu pattu ensemble with 444 musicians led by exponent Odakali Murali Marar performing simultaneously at the Asramam Maidan in , Kerala on Jan 9, 2013. Kombu pattu is a long C-shaped wind instrument played along with the Panchavadyam and other melam.

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music 2017.pmd 168 25-03-2017, 00:03 M U S I C First song without maatras Manjit Sharma (b May 1, 1977) from Tinsukia, Assam has composed a Hindi song, the lyrics of which do not contain any maatras. The song ‘Hulchul Mann’ was written and composed in 7 months. (Note: This is not a commercially available song).

Tihar singers Hindi song video ‘Tinka Tinka Tihar’ sung by inmates of Tihar jail was released by Sumitra Mahajan, Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha in the Parliament on May 6, 2015. The lyrics are written by Vartika Nanda and composed by Santosh Rao. The video was shot in Jail No 6 of Tihar. (Note: This is not a commercially available song).

Largest harmonica ensemble Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in association with FOCUS Adventure India Pvt Ltd organised the largest harmonica ensemble with 355 participants at the St Regis Hotel in Lower Parel, Mumbai on April 8, 2016. The attempt was part of an experiential workshop in which the employees from BCG were trained by Maressa B McCall from FOCUS Adventure India Pvt Ltd. The event was organised to celebrate BCG’s 20 years of presence in India.

WR: Largest keyboard ensemble Sri Veena Vani Music School organised the largest keyboard ensemble with 400 participants performing together at the Jain College auditorium, Bengaluru on Sept 6, 2015. They performed four songs including the national song and the national anthem. The event was conceptualised by Dr Guinness Gireesh Kumar.

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Largest folk instrument ensemble Sandeep Kadam, Deputy Commissioner of Mandi, Himachal Pradesh organised a folk instrument ensemble called Devdhwani (Music of God) with 1,806 local musicians from various villages of Himachal at the Paddal Maidan, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh on March 10, 2016. This event was part of the Shivaratri fair in Mandi. The ensemble included 180 Narsingha, 416 Karnal, 93 Shehnai, 16 Kahuli (wind instrument), 495 Nagara, 467 Dhol, 70 Bamb and 59 Bhana and 10 Phalehara (percussion) besides accompaniment instruments in smaller numbers. (These musicians are said to travel with local deities who do any deeds on the tunes played by these musicians, as the belief goes). For the event musicians were divided into four groups based on the valleys they belong to Seraj, Balh, Chuar and Sanor.

Largest ensemble World Peace Centre of MAEER’s MIT, Pune organised an All India Mridang Summit, a mridangam concert, with 9,033 artistes on the banks of Indrayani river in Alandi, Pune from 4.00 to 6.00 pm on Feb 7, 2016. Artistes from across the country participated in this event which marked the 75th birth anniversary of Vishwanath Karad founder of MAEER’s MIT. A group of singers also performed for the event.

Marathon singing (multiple groups) Ramsheth Thakur Samajik Vikas Mandal from Mumbai organised a 192 hr singing marathon at the Ramsheth Thakur Vikas Mandal Hall in Panvel, Mumbai. Around 276 bhajan groups comprising of singers and instrumentalists from various districts of Maharashtra performed on two stage setup for the performance. The performance started at 6.00 pm on June 2 and was over by 6.00 pm on June 10, 2016.

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music 2017.pmd 170 25-03-2017, 00:07 M U S I C Marathon duet singing Parijat Chavan (b Nov 14, 1966) and his wife Gayatri Chavan (b Dec 15, 1989) sang duets for 19 hr at the Rajshri Sahu Maharaj Natya Mandir, Dhule, Maharashtra from July 18-19, 2015. The couple sang around 200 Marathon Hindustani classical concert songs for (multiple artistes) their attempt Young Star Trust organised a 40 hr long in Hindi and Hindustani classical concert with 36 singers Marathi. They singing in a relay at the VIVA College auditorium in started the attempt Vasai, Palghar, Maharashtra from June 18-20, at around 6.00 pm and ended it by 4.00 pm the 2016. This was a Samay Siddhant-based concert next day. where ragas were sung according to their prescribed time. The performance was started at 9.05 am by Aditya Madhusudan Apate singing Marathon tribute concert (solo) Gaud Malhar raga and ended at 2.30 am Bhupendrakumar Kantilal Patel (b March 29, in the morning on June 20 with Pandit 1951) of Ahmedabad, Gujarat Kumar Surushe singing Sur Malhar. Each sang songs of singer singer was assisted by instrumentalists on Mukesh for 14 hr at the tabla and on harmonium. The singers Town Hall in were felicitated after their performance Ahmedabad, Gujarat with a certificate and trophy. The on August 30, 2015. In programme was also telecast live on the the programme titled website www.hitendrathakur.com. Sur Pancham he sang around 141 songs of the Marathon guitar performance musical legend. He was Guarav Kumar (b Jan 1, 1988) from Saharanpur, accompanied by an orchestra Uttar Pradesh played songs on the guitar for 50 hr and various other singers for duets. at the Sargam Music and Dance Academy from Jan 6-9, 2016. He started the performance at 4.00 pm on Jan 6 and received ample support from his students and townspeople and finished it by 4.50 am on Jan 9. Gaurav had started the Sargam Academy in 2008 and also runs a band called Necromancers.

WR: Marathon keyboard performance Mrityunjay Sharma (b August 22, 1996) played various ragas and songs on a Korg Professional PA300 keyboard for 127 hr 8 min and 38 sec at the auditorium of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi from Oct 11-17, 2015.

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Marathon saxophone performance Shripad Moreshwar Solapurkar (b Oct 20, 1958) of Pune, Maharashtra played the saxophone for 6 hr 50 min. He played 51 well-known Bollywood numbers at the Balgandharv Rangmandir, Pune on July 13, Longest running non-commercial musical 2015. He started his performance programme for children at 6.15 pm and finished by 1.15 Sundaram Finance has been organising music am in the morning on July 14, concerts called Sunday Kutcheri in the Park on the 2015 and was supported by an first Sunday morning of every month at the orchestra team. The programme Nageswara Rao Park in Mylapore, Chennai since titled Manohari Dhun was February 2006. Since then, 128 such kutcheris dedicated to Saxophone artiste have been held as of June 5, 2016. This Carnatic Manohari Singh. programme is open for children below 15 years of age. For the 10th year celebrations, a group from Vandalur Vishwavidyalaya performed on Feb 7, 2016. The event is conceptualised by TT Srinivasaraghavan, MD of Sundaram Finance.

Longest DJ marathon (multiple performers) Zeroin Management Pvt Ltd organised a marathon DJ party ‘DJ’amathon’ at three different stage areas set up within the premises of the Hotel Royal Orchid, Bengaluru on Sept 6, 2015. Around 44 Disc Jockey’s from Bengaluru were part of the Longest DJ marathon (solo) event to make sure that the party continued for Venkatesh Natarajan (b May 9, 1982) from 12 hr non-stop from 12.00 noon to midnight. The Chennai entertained his family and friends with playlist offered a varied mix of genres including various song remixes for 20 hr at the Selvarani Electro, Hip-hop and Bollywood numbers. One Mahal auditorium in Ayyappanthangal, Chennai stage was set up at the Geoffrey’s restaurant, the from June 18-19, 2016. He started off with second at the pool and the third stage was in the devotional songs and during the rest of the lawn within the hotel premises. Till 8.00 pm all performance played Hindi classics, Russian classics, the three stages were active post that the party Tamil, English songs and instrumental collections continued at Geoffrey’s restaurant only. too.

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Most DJs in a relay event Phoenix Marketcity, Pune organised a DJ relay in their premises with 291 DJs lining up to play one song each non- stop for 12 hr on March 8, 2016. The event started at 11.20 am in the morning with DJ Salil starting off the relay and ended by 11.16 pm. Each DJ was given around 2-3 min to make necessary adjustments on the mixer and start their selected song before clearing the stage for the next DJ.

Most national anthem renditions Nimisha Pradeep, Aparna V and Anjitha CN, students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kanjikode under the mentorship of their teacher Leena Mukundan mastered national anthems of 34 foreign countries in 10 months (Apr 2014-Jan 2015). The CD containing studio-recorded anthems and video with details with the specific country put together called Anyonyam was released by MB Rajesh, Member of Parliament, Palakkad at a function held in school on Jan 20, 2015. The students spent time understanding the meaning of each anthem and picking up the tunes and lyrics from the Internet. Various teachers and experts helped to ensure that proper pronunciation was maintained for each language. The students learned the anthems of Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bhutan, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Namibia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE, USA, UK, Zambia and Indonesia.

Longest song Rupinder Shakeel (b March 10, 1958) from Patiala Punjab has written and composed a Punjabi song with a duration of 2 hr 36 min. The lyrics talk about a lover’s break-up. The song was written and composed in around two months’ time by May 4, 2016. (Note: This is not a commercially available song).

Most language songs in a single album Bammidi Sridhar Yadav alias Sritarak from Anandapuram, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh sang songs in 20 languages and dialects for the multilingual music album India20. He has composed all the songs and various writers have contributed the lyrics. The audio CD was released by Ganta Srinivasa Rao at the Zilla Parishad meeting hall, Visakhapatnam on June 19, 2016. The patriotic songs were sung in Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, English, French, German, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, , Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Savara, Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu.

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Most whistling renditions uploaded Rajesh Koppikar currently residing in Florida, USA has been recording whistling renditions of various songs along with karaoke tracks since 2007 and as of June 30, 2015 had uploaded 1,038 such videos on his YouTube channel. He has whistled some of the well-known Hindi, English film and pop songs and some Marathi songs too.

Singing at the highest altitude Rahul Gupta (b June 25, 1994) of Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh sang the National Anthem at an altitude of 5,895 m above sea- level atop Uhuru Peak of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania on Jan 8, 2015. It is the highest peak in Africa. Rahul was part of an NCC mountaineering group which reached the peak in four days.

Most serial ‘shraddhanjali’ nights Dr Kamlesh Avasthi, a great fan of late playback singer Mukesh has been observing his death anniversary every year for the last 40 years by performing live shows on stage dedicated to the memory of Mukesh in Ahmedabad on August 27 and 28. Mukesh passed away on August 26, 1976. The only time they did not take place on those days was in 2004 when he was invited to perform in the USA. But even that year, he held the Mukesh Nite before he left, on August 4.

Longest running inter-college music competition Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre has been organising an Inter Collegiate Light Musical Competition for the past 33 years in Mumbai. The competition, started in 1981, was first open to colleges in Maharashtra alone but now covers Goa, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. In 2013 the competitions were held at 11 cities with 265 participants from August 10, 2013 to Dec 8, 2013. The finale was held between 40 participants at the Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre, Mumbai on Dec 22, 2013.

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